@ByGrace3I just wanted to add that I understand your frustration with the rules for Florida public universities re: foreign language and homeschoolers. I inquired about this subject a few years ago, and was told in so many words by someone from a state legislator's office that homeschoolers are not a big enough group for enough state legislators to push for change to the foreign language rules for graduation from public Florida universities for homeschoolers. The FL Board of Governors make these rules. It definitely isn't fair to homeschoolers. That's what we see in other areas like college entrance tests. Some things I'd consider if I were you would be: the FLATS exam (reviews on this seem to indicate it's a bit easier to attain proficiency than the CLEP exam for Spanish), dual enrollment for Spanish but start with Spanish 1, or do FLVS or another online regionally accredited provider for Spanish 1 & 2. I know with FLVS a student can finish the material early; no -- one doesn't learn much Spanish with FLVS but the point would be to check that box. Sending hugs as you navigate this process and make important decisions! As a quick aside, the mandate for attending summer classes for 9 credits before graduation is something all public universities in Florida have; there are a few exceptions for students.

This is actually two different things for some Florida public universities. 1. For instance, in order to be considered for admission to UNF, the applicant does not need a regionally accredited provider for two years minimum of foreign language taken in high school (note: I am basing my information on conversations and email communications with various admission offices when my oldest applied to colleges for Fall 2020). The state flagship is a bit harder to figure out; they used to spell out on their site that one needed to have the foreign language from a regionally accredited provider or proof of proficiency to be considered for admission, now things are more murky. 2. In order to graduate from a public university in Florida, as Melissa B notes, one must complete two years of a foreign language. Most fulfill this requirement in high school, as they attend either a public or private regionally accredited school. However, homeschoolers have the extra burden of either showing foreign language proficiency via CLEP, AP, dual enrollment, IB, AICE, or FLATS exam, or taking 2 sequential years of a foreign language with a regionally accredited provider. * Other than FLVS, which is regionally accredited like a public school, I believe Wilson Hill Academy, Kolbe Online Academy, and TPS are regionally accredited and allow families to enroll a la carte and get an official transcript sent to a university. See the Florida Board of Governors PDF pages 2-3: https://www.flbog.edu/wp-content/uploads/6_002FINAL_FTIC_03252020.pdf and the different standard for homeschoolers is more clear.

I'm not sure if what I wrote was misunderstood, but there was no issue w/ my dd filling out the SSAR. Further, I did contact an admissions officer (at a few diff. colleges) w/ questions a few years before she applied and it was quite helpful. DD applied to 6 competitive universities and got into them all. I was just trying to make the point that I followed my gut after doing research, and that is, for some things I gave more information than was demanded. Was it worth it? Yes, dd is attending a top 10 public university and we are only having to pay for housing (100% free tuition).

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Another reason I loved the TPS Russian class is that there were so many things that were graded during the semesters. That meant if you didn't do as well on a homework, audio recording or quiz etc. it wasn't the end of the world if you really wanted an A in the class. A few universities that DD applied to wanted her grade report for Russian 1 & 2 mid-year her senior year. I printed it out back and front because it was something like 14 pages back and front. And no, there wasn't busy work. Everything assigned had the goal of helping the student learn/retain the Russian being taught in class.

If you are willing to pay money for a summer online class, I was in a similar position w/ one of my kids and had them do a short summer online class at Kolbe Academy. I think it was called Composition Bootcamp ($239) -- they have them for a few different grade levels. It helped quite a bit and was definitely worth it to me.

My DD did Russian 1 & 2 via TPS and absolutely loved it. Mrs. Pledger is a great teacher and made customized Quizlets for the Russian vocab etc. From what my DD told me, as long as you put in the work you'll do well. In Russian 1 they spent a while learning the alphabet and the sounds. DD finished Russian 2 in 2020, and at that time they used the same textbook for Russian 1 & 2. She also got mid to high A averages for Russian 1 & 2. She loved the language and was much more dedicated than most learning a foreign language (comparing her to me in high school learning a foreign language). But that said, I think there were maybe 3 students in Russian 1 that chose not to go on to Russian 2, and I think it was because they weren't studying the right way for them. I can't recall if your DD has already learned a different foreign language, but if she has, even a little, that will likely give her a leg up with Russian. Knowing how to study for a foreign language is half the battle. HTH!

I like the CLEP idea for English, since the OP's niece is a good writer. My DD, also a good writer, took the English w/ essay CLEP and passed easily. But for a math CLEP, it depends. If the school would accept College Algebra CLEP in lieu of a 2nd semester pre-calculus class, then I think an average math student in the middle of Pre-Calc for high school could pass College Algebra CLEP with study. I don't have kids who took the Pre-Calculus CLEP, so I can't comment on that, but I think I've seen people post on here about their kids passing the Pre-Calc CLEP.

You can take a look at Liberty University Online Academy for an English &/or Pre-Calc. class for your niece -- they have regular high school and also dual enrollment (both asychnronous). We have used a DE course via LUOA and it was actually really good and it transferred without issues to DD's university (our state flagship).

We have used FLVS for AP Macro and Physics Honors. The "teaching" in these courses is laughable; it's more like you teach yourself. Also, the student gets chapters of the "e-book" in modules and can't access the whole ebook at one time. Then there are the DBA phone calls from the teacher which are like oral quizzes. Have I mentioned they link to places like YouTube for deeper explanations?! I don't recommend FLVS. However, a friend's DD used it for Spanish 1&2 and got an A and B respectively, though she didn't know very much Spanish at the end of Spanish 2.

Rate My Professor is usually trustworthy, but we've found this semester it can't be relied on to be accurate all the time. The Speech class DD is currently taking at uni has a professor that has very low ratings on RMP, but the professor is actually very fair w/ grading and kind. Another place to check is the Reddit for the university -- sometimes it is more accurate than RMP if you find a thread on the class or professor.

Just when I thought I knew what we were going to do for 10th grade and the online classes to register for, I realized I needed to do more research for Spanish 2 for DS. While DS is currently in a Spanish 1 online class and it's going well, for reasons I don't want to get into right now, I need to look at other options for providers "just in case." A few people mentioned Aim Academy for foreign language, and it looks intriguing. Has anyone done Spanish 2 with Aim Academy (debra bell site)? Or any other ideas for Spanish 2 online classes? TIA!

I think my DD also used a bit of Modern States for the Sociology CLEP. What she did was took the initial placement test in the REA book and realized what things she needed to study and did focused studying. She didn't do the whole course for Modern States. When she thought she was ready, she took a practice test and if her score was at least 10 points higher than what was needed, we scheduled a CLEP test appointment.

My oldest wasn't ready for DE until summer before her senior year, though I guess technically that was part of her senior year. She did Stats online via LUOA. Then she took Earth Science with the lab at our local university and absolutely loved it. The next semester she took an elective and another science class -- that is the semester the pandemic hit. It ended up working out and she got all A's doing DE but she hated taking the classes online. Here the DE is free but one can't take more than 6 credits / semester at the university. The community colleges allow up to 12 credits/semester I think, but it would have been a longer commute and more of a headache to register, so we didn't go that route. As far as CLEP for a foreign language, my advice is not to count on getting a high enough score and have an alternative plan. DD studied Spanish for 3 years and was not able to score a 63, which is what our state requires for getting credit for 2 semesters of a foreign language. She got a good enough CLEP score to get out of one semester of Spanish, but is now in a major that doesn't require a foreign language. The CLEP for foreign language should be doable for those who have done 4 years (i.e. Spanish 1-4). Some states only require a 50 on the CLEP to get out of 2 semesters of a foreign language, which is much more doable.

We tried the Fix it Grammar with DS and it was terrible for him, as seeing incorrect sentences that he had to fix just overwhelmed him. There is a wide variety of curriculum because one size does not fit all. 🙂 After just 5 months of an online Comp. & Lit. class, DS scored very high on the English parts of the CLT10 -- something he had never done before on any standardized tests. I have realized that for DS, the right curriculum was actually a good online English teacher, but for my oldest, homeschool English curriculum was all she needed as she was a natural speller and writer.

No experience with ASU Earned Admission, though I'm looking into a couple of their courses for my youngest. However, for Sociology, I would recommend studying for the Sociology CLEP test. It is known as one of the easier CLEP exams. DD studied Sociology for 6-8 weeks (mainly using the REA text), did some practice tests, and then took the CLEP exam and passed. If your DD is considering a public university, you can look and see what score she needs to get credit for the Sociology CLEP exam.

I have found that an online live English class worked better than all the grammar, spelling, and other English workbooks and texts I had taught prior to that. A teacher that wasn't mom worked wonders for an improvement in grammar and punctuation. I can't tell you how many English type workbooks I bought over the years for this particular kid -- none of them helped as much as I would have liked. Just one school year of a live English class can make a huge difference in the areas you're concerned about. YMMV of course. 🙂 Other than an online live English course, I found the WTM Writing With Skill very helpful for improving grammar, spelling, and punctuation, though it required a ton of my time as a teacher.

OP, this is a very good question. I found that when DD applied to universities for admission for Fall 2020, the more competitive universities wanted a printout of the grade reports for her regionally accredited online classes (ended up being 15 pages front and back for Russian 1-2 and printout of dual enrollment class - grade in progress at time of application and one completed previous to application) and then once she committed to a certain competitive public university, they wanted the official transcripts from all online classes that were regionally accredited mailed to them from the provider or accrediting body. They didn't care about transcripts from unaccredited providers and considered me the instructor of record for those classes. It ended up that she had a very eclectic combo of online classes from various online providers, most of which were unaccredited. That was good as it cut down on paperwork for me, and while she did a DE Stats class online via LUOA and another 2 DE classes locally, and one AP online class, those and the Russian 1-2 classes were the only classes I had to get transcripts sent for, which lightened my workload. I actually did have to provide a graded writing sample, a scanned simple transcript I created in Excel, and a copy of the ACT report so that DD could get admitted to the local DE program at the nearby university. I didn't have to provide a graded writing sample when she applied for regular freshman admission to college, though she certainly had to write quite a few short answers and an essay or two when applying. However, for those who take quite a few classes from one or more online providers that are regionally accredited, it is tricky if a student withdraws from a class depending on the provider. I know some providers will put a W on the transcript unless the student withdraws before the drop/add deadline, while other providers don't put the class on the transcript unless the student completes it, and if the students withdraws it is as if they never took the class there.

Thank you so much for posting this point! Because I saw this, I asked Veritas about a transcript for 1-2 online classes we are considering, and the answer is they don't mail out transcripts for non-diploma track students. Instead they will email you or the college a grade report, which they say is accredited. For those wanting a transcript of an online class from a regionally accredited provider -- check first on the transcript policy of the provider before enrolling, if it is vital to have a transcript mailed.

We had a great experience with TPS for Russian 1 and 2, and before I registered DD for Russian 1 at TPS, I looked at the reviews posted on the TPS site for it. The good reviews turned out to be accurate. The TPS Russian teacher is really excellent. Other items to consider: 1/ Length of the class and if your student can handle that. I've seen online classes range from 1 hour, to 1.5 hours, to nearly 2 hours. 2/ Is regional accreditation for the online provider needed or not? 3/ See if you can get a link to a recording of the Arabic 1 class. I have done that with TPS and other providers, and watched the class recording before deciding on whether the class will be a good fit. 4/ Though TPS is a Christian provider, DD didn't feel that it impacted the instruction. I worry more about the fit from how the instructor teaches and how adept they are with technology in the online classroom, workload etc.

Well, for a foreign language class a self-paced class wouldn't be an option I'd consider unless it were free. He can do FLVS for free, but I don't think one learns a foreign language as well as from a live class. However, it does check the regionally accredited box. 🙂 I tried out Kolbe self-paced and self-paced plus and it is way too expensive for what it is.

Thanks, @cintinative -- it looks like Excelsior isn't accredited. I took a peek at their FAQ page. Kolbe is regionally accredited, and I know you can get a transcript for just one class sent to a college / university when needed (for a fee). I am a little unclear as to what it will say on the transcript; will it say self-paced and parent graded? That would be the question to email Kolbe or use the live chat feature. Unfortunately DS is not the type to do well in a self-paced recorded Spanish class or I'd look into it. 🙂

If anyone has a recent review they can share of a Spanish 2 online class with either Wilson Hill, Veritas Press, or TPS that would be great. For scholarship reasons, I need DS to take one more year of Spanish with a regionally accredited provider. Kolbe's Spanish 1 has been great but their schedule isn't posted yet and they changed their prioritization of who registers first, second etc. and we would be able to register last. 🙂 DS will be in 10th next school year. I'm looking for whether the teacher is good, fair on quizzes, tests, and homework is a help to learn Spanish, overall hours put in/week if you have a guesstimate. If you'd rather PM me that is fine! Thank you!

I think your idea of putting your son in Geometry now is a good one. Hopefully he likes Geometry better! I've heard good things about Teaching Textbooks, and Math U See is a curriculum some people I know have used successfully.

We are using Mr. D live for my DS (Algebra 2). It's awesome and my son actually likes math now as opposed to before... As far as Algebra 1 that my DD did, we used Saxon and it was awful. With DS we used Foerster and it was better than the Saxon text, but after that DS requested a live virtual math class. 🙂DD used Shormann briefly for Algebra 2 and did use 2 chapters of the College Algebra CLEP review that Shormann offers and that was fine, but we just didn't have good luck with Shormann. But honestly people learn differently and that could be the reason. DD said there were too many things to watch and click, and looking at it then she seemed correct. I don't think she liked / learned well the way it was taught. I mean, some people love Shormann math and that's because they learn well the way it's taught. Knowing what I know now I think she would have done better with live virtual math classes, but I didn't know about those at the time.